Yesterday, while doing my grocery shopping for the week, I started to think about how much the contents of my cart have changed over the past couple of years.

While I always got fresh fruits and vegetables from the farm market, my grocery cart was surprisingly different. When I first started to cook, I bought a lot of processed foods to help me since I was just learning. As I started to become more aware of organics, I would buy organic processed foods. Still, my cart looked like it was full of boxes, plastic bags, and cartons. As I started to move more toward a whole food mentality, my cart came to life. I was buying living ingredients instead of processed junk.

Yesterday, walking down the aisles, I was thinking about what I’d make for supper this week. I saved a lot of time because we’ve got beef, pork, and fish in the freezer, so I just grab some chicken, antibiotic and hormone free. I picked up some carrots, a bag of potatoes, a few onions, a clove of garlic, and some pears. All of our other vegetables and fruits for the week are frozen or canned, from our garden. I pick up milk, eggs, and flour. I stop to think: Pizza dough? I can make that, but I need a new jar of yeast. Pasta? I can make that, too. Tortillas? Again, I can make them. Cheese? Well, I’ve been wanting to try Crunchy Chicken’s yogurt/cream cheese, so I picked up a container of plain yogurt.

This winter, I’ve headed more and more toward living from scratch, a lifestyle that I first described, and unconsciously named, last week. It’s amazingly fulfilling to look at my shopping cart and realize that it is full of living, whole foods instead of bottles and boxes. It’s even more fulfilling to spend time in the kitchen, using my hands to create supper.

I made these tortillas this afternoon (here’s my recipe), filled them with some ground beef from our freezer cooked with cumin, paprika, and red pepper flakes, re-fried beans, yogurt cheese, and salsa, then topped them with salsa, shredded jack cheese and onions, and baked them at 375°F for 20 minutes. I call them enchiladas, but I’m not certain that’s what they are. I never thought I’d make tortillas, especially on a weeknight, but now I enjoy doing it.

Is there anything you were intimidated to try? Were you empowered once you tried it?

7 responses to “Changes at the Grocery Store”

Was I intimidated to try anything? Everything, actually! Bread, yogurt, gardening, canning… I could go on. But once I started trying new things (and succeeding), I became empowered and instead of being constrained by things I can’t do, I’m only awaiting the next adventure (maybe sewing?…)

Canning and baking my own bread both intimidated me, but now I love them. I’m still in the learning stages right now, though. I’m not sure I’m ready to try tortillas. I remember my one experience in Mexico when I was 15, and the 6-year-old local girls laughed at our finished tortillas. Maybe soon I’ll give them a go.

That’s great. I remember going through similar stages as yours – especially the processed but hey it’s organic boxes and plastic packages to the top of the cart phase. I make a lot from scratch but not pasta and only tortillas once. Still, I feel pretty good when I look and see how little I buy at the regular grocery store and how much of it is a “whole food.”

I never thought I could make cheesecake but thanks to you now I make one every few weeks as part of our regular desert rotation. Other than that I was also nervous at the thought of making new things without a recipe. I still don’t do that a lot because it is so disappointing when things don’t turn out, plus some of my concoctions have been so bad that a lot of food was wasted. However, I’m getting a feel for what goes good together. I’ve even created my own cornbread recipe that we all love (& that I’ll post soon)! Hopefully I’ll be a great cook like you someday. Baking comes easy to me but cooking is totally different.

I’ve been wanting to make crackers, and now I’ve run out of store bought ones. Just need to get the time! Noodles are also something I’ve been wanting to do, but I just don’t seem to find the time to do it. I wouldn’t say I’m intimidated by the process of doing it, I’m more worried what my husband will think of the new way of doing things. He’s not much for change, thinks anything wheat (instead of processed white) is “poison” and would prefer a can of spaghettios and meatballs any day. I’m still working on him 🙂

Nothing has recently intimidated me but I’ve become relay frustrated with sour dough. We used to make it all the time with white flour but now that we are grinding our own flour it never turns out rite any suggestions ?